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BayBears' Bo Schultz still chasing the big-league dream five games at time

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Bo Schultz pitches for the Mobile BayBears during a Southern League game against the Montgomery Biscuits on Thursday, July 18, 2013, at Hank Aaron Stadium in Mobile, Ala. (Mike Kittrell/mkittrell@al.com)

The Mobile BayBears open a 10-game road trip when they play the Birmingham Barons at 7:05 tonight. It's not the most taxing road trip in the Southern League, since the second half of it comes against the nearby Pensacola Blue Wahoos. But it's another long bus ride in a season that passes in five-game increments.

"It's a very nomadic lifestyle," Mobile pitcher Bo Schultz said in describing the minor leagues. "It provides the opportunity to see a lot of parts of America that you wouldn't necessarily see. I'm a guy from Texas. I've been in leagues all over the place. I've seen the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Vancouver. I've seen the Midwest from Dayton to Cedar Rapids. And down here, it's beautiful seeing the long pines and all that.

"I guess the short answer is you hop on a bus and sleep or kill time for three to seven or eight hours, depending on where you're going. Get there, live out of a suitcase for four or five games, get home, do a load of laundry and do it again."

Although Schultz has seen several parts of the country, that doesn't mean he's been able to enjoy what those regions have to offer.

"For the most part, you don't get as much of an opportunity to experience them as you would want or you would hope to," Schultz said. "You see interesting things and you see different things. But for the most part on a road trip, it's on the bus at the hotel to the field, back on the bus at the field back to the hotel, maybe go see a movie, maybe go to dinner. But other than that, you don't really have an opportunity to do a whole lot."

The proximity of Pensacola means the BayBears will be at home even though they won't play at home from July 28 through Aug. 1.

"The Pensacola trip is a commuter trip because it's only 45 minutes to an hour and half depending on traffic," Schultz said. "The good part is even though it's a 10-game road trip, we get to stay in our own beds for half of it. So we'll be in Birmingham for five, and then we'll get to sleep in our own beds for five back home."

View full sizeBo Schultz pitches for the Mobile BayBears against the Montgomery Biscuits during a Southern League game on July 6, 2013, at Hank Aaron Stadium in Mobile, Ala. (Mike Kittrell/mkittrell@al.com)

Schultz is playing his sixth minor-league season for his second Major League organization, with a stint with an unaffiliated team sandwiched in between. At 27 years old with a degree from Northwestern, Schultz said sometimes he wonders what he's doing still chasing the big-league dream.

"To be perfectly honest, those thoughts emerge much more often than I'd like them to," he said. "At first, baseball was, 'Cool. This will be something to do for a summer. Maybe it'll work out.' All right, I had some success, let's try it again. Well, I need to advance in order to do this.

"I was slowly moving forward a level at a time. Now, it's like: What am I doing? I'm 27 years old, and I'm working my butt off every day trying to give myself the best opportunity to succeed. But then it's hard not to hear those demons, I guess, in the back of your mind saying: Be a grownup. What are you doing? Quit chasing this. Give yourself an opportunity to establish yourself in life.

"But the response to that internally is once you stop playing baseball, you're done. There really is no second chance on that. Once you decide you're done with it, your body physically isn't capable of maintaining. That's the response to: Why play? Because if I stop, I can't do it again."

Schultz got the final out of the final game of the season last year as the BayBears clinched their second consecutive Southern League championship with a 1-0 victory over the Jackson Generals.

"I've had kind of a long road kicking along in an organization, in independent ball, back into another organization," Schultz said. "So I haven't necessarily had the opportunity to have a life experience at a higher level, but I'd say definitely so far the highlight (of my career) would be being able to close out the Southern League championship last year."

Schultz is in a different role for the BayBears this season. Before June 8, Schultz had started only 11 of his 192 pro games. But over the past two months since Schultz came back to Mobile after making 17 relief appearances for Triple-A Reno, the Arizona Diamondbacks have had the right-hander working exclusively as a starter, beginning with a three-inning outing and working his way to 7.1 innings in his most recent start on Thursday. He's scheduled to start on Wednesday against Birmingham.

"It's an interesting transition," Schultz said, "but whatever the organization thinks is the best opportunity for me and them, I suppose. Obviously, it's a business, so they want to do what's in their best interests. For me, if it creates the shortest path to the big leagues - awesome. Hopefully, I can take advantage of the opportunity and the extra innings.

"I felt good as a relief pitcher. The good part is I believe I've proved to them I'm able to pitch in mid-relief, late relief, close games out - here this year and last year. I suppose if I'm able to start as well, that would be great. The worst case is I end up with more innings, more opportunities to learn how to pitch rather than just come in and try to blow it by people."

In his eight starts with Mobile, Schultz has a 2-2 record with a 3.20 earned-run average. In 39.1 innings, he's given up 27 hits and 12 walks while striking out 29. Opposing batters are hitting .197 against him.

"The big difference (between being a starter and a reliever) from the beginning has been (Mobile pitching coach Dan Carlson) and I's discussions about how to work through the lineup several times," Schultz said. "As a relief pitcher, you're coming in for usually an inning, at most two innings. As a one-inning relief pitcher, your job is to come in and blow the doors off the place for three or five batters. So you don't have to worry about pitching a guy a different way or learning from his at-bat the first time. Coming through the lineup two or three times is basically a chess match in one day. It's a fun mental difference.

"It's been OK. I've had a little trouble with the big inning -- a three-run inning in two games, a four-run inning in a game. Other than that, it's been pretty clean. The biggest key to future success is learning to limit the big inning as much as possible."